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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27373246">Captured</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose'>plutosrose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boiling Rock Prison, Discussions of death, Escapes, F/M, Happy Ending, Murder, Open Ending, Reunions, Road Trips, Torture, captured by villains, injuries</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:34:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,030</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27373246</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Zuko seems to join them, Katara is captured in Ba Sing Se when a rock slide separates her from Aang.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Katara (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>188</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko appeared out of nowhere, a revelation in the caves, taking his stance next to Katara and Aang. A moment of silence passed between the four of them. The fight was just on the horizon, each of them could feel it in the air.</p><p>But none of them could know how it was going to end.</p><p>-</p><p>Azula was crafty and smart, and more viciously cruel than a crowvulture. Even when they’d cornered her in the past, she had a way of twisting the situation to her advantage. Now wasn’t much different. </p><p>“Aww, ZuZu, guess I was right that you were a traitor,” she pouted dramatically, and Zuko gritted his teeth. “Father is going to be so disappointed in you, siding with the Avatar. What are you going to do, kill the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation?”</p><p>Azula had always been good at getting under his skin. The fact that she could speak so casually about him killing her made his form slacken almost immediately. Katara and Aang exchanged worried and confused looks for a moment, before they both jumped into position to bend the water in the caves - maybe, if Azula was distracted, they had a chance at taking her down, once and for all.</p><p>Azula had deftly deflected the wave of water with a few hissing blasts of blue flames, evaporating the water on impact. She had always looked incredibly put together, Katara thought, and for the briefest moment, Katara could tell that her perfectly managed image was beginning to fray at the edges.</p><p>Her dark hair was coming out of the high bun on her head, and her eyes looked wild. She pointed at Katara. “I’ll do it,” she said. “Don’t think I won’t.” For a moment, Katara thought that she was talking to Aang, but when she followed her line of sight, she realized that she was talking to Zuko. </p><p>Zuko didn’t challenge her. If there was anyone that knew the depths of Azula’s cruelty, it was him. He took every single thing that came out of her mouth seriously, no matter how ridiculous it had seemed. </p><p>Because if there was one thing that Azula wasn’t, it was a liar.</p><p>Zuko surged forward, grabbing Azula’s wrist. The lightning, a brilliant blue-white, shot off. Katara ducked and rolled out of the way, and Aang followed, trying to roll out of the way.<br/>Zuko had succeeded in a re-direction, but only just so - instead of hitting Katara, the bolt of lightning hit the crystal rock formation that was behind them, creating a viciously fast rock slide. </p><p>Aang immediately took a firm stance and tried to push the rocks back, but by the time he’d managed it, the rock slide had cut him off from Katara. </p><p>“Katara!” Aang cried, trying as hard as he could to wrench the rocks back. But, as hard as he tried, he couldn’t make them move. The Dai Li, he reasoned, must have been holding them back. Even as the Avatar, he couldn’t necessarily fight off twenty master earthbenders at once, especially if they were all working together to try and hold him off.</p><p>“Aang, go! You have to go!” he heard Katara shout through the rubble. “Go now! Find the others!”</p><p>“I’m not leaving without you!” Aang groaned, trying as hard as he could to pull the rocks apart.</p><p>“There’s no time, Aang, you have to go right now!” Katara’s voice was growing increasingly desperate. Aang’s stomach swooped uncomfortably. Maybe this was his fault - if he had never left the training, maybe he would be able to go into the Avatar State now and save Katara. He couldn’t just leave her behind.</p><p>“Go now!” Katara gasped out, and Aang could hear the sounds of a struggle. He could imagine her being pulled back and restrained by The Dai Li, and just the thought made him feel like he was being set on fire with anger. “Don’t worry about me!” </p><p>“I will find you!” Aang called out, narrowly missing another lightning bolt that zoomed through the rubble. He had to believe that he would--he wasn’t sure that he could live with himself if anything happened to Katara. </p><p>-</p><p>As the rocks had slid down, Katara was quick to tumble out of the way. Zuko, who she had been watching on her left, did the same. </p><p>She saw the rock that he got pinned under before he did. </p><p>The first astounding thing to her was that he didn’t cry out when it rolled onto his back and pressed him into the floor. The second was how deeply unsatisfied she felt to see him wincing in pain. She had spent more time than she cared to admit thinking about him in pain as retribution for taking her mother’s necklace, for trying to capture Aang and bring him to the Fire Nation in chains, that privately, she would have thought that it would have been extremely satisfying to see him in pain. Or even to see him die.</p><p>It wasn’t.</p><p>Her gaze flicked between Zuko, who was still trapped, and Azula, who only spared a split second to look at what had happened to her brother. Once that split second was over, a barrage of blue flames flew through the air and in her direction. </p><p>She stepped forward, sweeping her arms upward, and bringing the water from the floor up in front of her to form a shield. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Azula may have been terrifying - Azula may have had no light behind her eyes - but she wasn’t the same little Water Tribe girl anymore. She wasn’t afraid.</p><p>Unfortunately, whether she was afraid or not seemed to matter very little, because while she was able to block and parry every single one of Azula’s fire blasts, she didn’t have the Dai Li on her side. </p><p>They started coming slowly, creeping up out of shadows and from behind the rock formations in the cave. She did her best to avoid the rocks that they sent her way, knocking them out of the air with surgical precision.</p><p>She wasn’t quite sure when there started to be too many of them. Frankly, she wasn’t sure how many Dai Li agents there’d been in total. She wasn’t even sure if the Earth King knew the answer to that question. </p><p>Toph, as creative an Earthbender as she was, was also an honest one. She attacked head-on, from the front--or at least from an angle that her opponent would have been aware of. </p><p>But the Dai Li’s Earthbending wasn’t straightforward and blunt like Toph’s was. Before she had a chance to swivel around to defend her back, a Dai Li agent had caught her off-guard, and she landed in a heap right by the rubble.</p><p>Azula stalked closer, wrenching her head up by her hair. “I am going to put you and my traitor of a brother in a hole so deep that no one will ever see or hear from either of you ever again. I think that sounds fair, don’t you?” </p><p>She let go of Katara’s hair and her head dropped almost instantly. At least that was the worst that she got from Azula in the moment. At the very least, she could count on that small mercy for herself, because she was fairly certain that it would be the last one that she got from her. </p><p>Zuko was even less lucky than she was, because only a few seconds later, Azula strode over to where he was trapped under the rocks and gave him a swift, sharp kick to the face.</p><p>Zuko cried out brokenly, unable to do anything to stem the blood that was now dripping from his nose. Katara winced. <br/>The rocks were lifted off of Zuko and she was hauled to her feet. She fought the impulse to focus on Aang--she was just going to have to trust that he was okay. For the first time since she was a girl, she thought about praying to Tui and La, which she hadn’t done since before her mother died and the elders in their village who had migrated from the Northern Water Tribe were still alive. </p><p>Azula studied her carefully for a moment. Katara pointedly avoided her gaze. Azula laughed--a cold, cruel, and soulless sound. She reached out and grabbed Katara’s chin roughly, forcing her to look her in the eye. </p><p>Katara was so focused on trying to control her heartbeat that she didn’t hear what Zuko said. But it must have been bad, because Azula turned and looked at him with wide eyes. “You seem to forget that Father sent me here to clean up <i>your</i> mess, and you have the audacity to speak to me that way.” </p><p>Azula shook her head, before waving a hand dismissively. “Dai Li, please take them away until I can bear to look at them.”</p><p>Katara wiggled her wrists in the stone restraints, assessing them for weak points, until one of the Dai Li agents noticed and wordlessly bound them a second time. “I don’t understand how you can be on Azula’s side,” she huffed. “She will never give you what you want, whatever it is.” </p><p>Zuko was shoved past her, and Katara had to wince at how painful his broken nose looked, bruised, bloody, and beginning to swell. For a moment, her curiosity got the better of her.</p><p>“What did you say to her?”</p><p>“No talking,” one of the Dai Li agents huffed out.</p><p>“Nothing.”</p><p>“Didn’t look like nothing.”</p><p>“Well, it was nothing.”</p><p>“I said no talking,” the agent barked again. </p><p>“Fine,” Katara grumbled. “I’m not talking, see?” </p><p>It turned out that antagonizing the Dai Li was the wrong move, because a few seconds later, it earned her a stone gag for her troubles. </p><p>She walked slowly and lethargically now, prodded ahead by the agents whenever they decided it was necessary. </p><p>She mapped out every turn that they took in the caves, deciding that she was going to need to catalogue information like this if she was going to have a chance at escaping. She couldn’t miss a single thing. </p><p>Admittedly, part of her thought that they were going to be left down in the caves to die, but the minute that they rose out of the caves, propelled by the Dai Li’s bending, she realized that she’d already made a slight miscalculation. </p><p>She looked wildly at one of the agents that had her roughly by the arm, but he said nothing. They never seemed to say anything, even when Long Feng was in charge. </p><p>She glanced back at Zuko for a moment, who was walking with his gaze firmly fixed on the ground. She caught herself almost thinking of him as an ally, before realizing that she didn’t know anything about him, not for sure.</p><p>She was in this alone.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The march into Ba Sing Se was long and hot. Katara was confident that the Dai Li had chosen the slowest and most roundabout route to bring them back to the city. If they cared about the heat, however, they were doing well showing no indication of their discomfort. </p><p>For the most part, she tried to keep her head down as much as she could, focused on the details of the route they were taking--but occasionally, she would look up to the sky. Maybe it was wrong to hope that she would see Appa--the last thing that she wanted was for Aang and Sokka and Toph to end up prisoners--but a part of her still hoped to see them. </p><p>Zuko didn’t speak as they walked, and she wasn’t sure if that made her angry or relieved. The more time that she had to walk, the more confusing and tangled his motivations seemed in her head. The most simple explanation--that Zuko had turned a corner and was becoming a better person--fizzled out every time she turned it over in her mind.</p><p>He had fought by their side. He had betrayed the Fire Nation. He had turned his back on his own sister.</p><p>And yet, Katara was still curious. Azula was cunning enough to infiltrate Ba Sing Se and the Earth King’s palace as a Kyoshi warrior. She’d known that the minute they saw them, they’d mistake them for friends, and they would vouch for them to the Earth King. </p><p>Katara couldn’t believe they’d been so blind--they’d met the Kyoshi warriors, they should have asked them about the island--or about anything that Azula and her friends wouldn’t know.</p><p>Then again, it seemed like there was very little that Azula didn’t know.</p><p>It seemed possible that Azula could talk to Zuko, could make him spill his secrets to her, get her to trust him, and even put him on their side for the purpose of luring them into a false sense of security. She didn’t need to know Azula well to know that if life was a game, she was playing it infinitely better than everyone else. </p><p>-</p><p>The Dai Li agents didn’t bother to throw them into the back of a caravan–instead, they marched them through the streets of Ba Sing Se. Katara kept her eyes fixed forward, if only because one of the agents had started pulling violently on her arm whenever she moved a centimeter or two more in a direction they didn’t like. </p><p>Katara could see people out of the corner of their eye watching them process through the city. Even though the Dai Li didn’t announce who they were to the crowds, they almost didn’t need to. Anyone who saw them seemed to understand, on an intrinsic level, that the Dai Li had captured people that they wanted them to see. </p><p>The Dai Li agents pulled her roughly up the steps to the Earth King’s palace. She didn’t have her bending water anymore--no, they’d taken that away from her after they’d captured her--fighting, at that moment, when they’d been up all night and marching for hours, would get her nowhere. </p><p>She was dragged into a palace room--it was spacious and had high ceilings. Katara guessed that this had been a drawing room or a study at one point. Maybe Azula had moved all the furniture out of the way anticipating torturing her and not wanting to get any blood on expensive Earth Kingdom antiques. </p><p>The Dai Li said nothing, they simply bound her legs with more earth and shoved her to the floor. She caught only a split second glimpse of Zuko, eyes focused on the floor, before the door slammed shut. </p><p>She wasn’t sure how much time had passed in that room. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. Maybe even a day. Time seemed to contract and expand at the same time in that room. </p><p>Finally, the door opened. </p><p>Katara narrowed her eyes, her hands curling into fists as she steeled herself to face Azula.</p><p>Only, it wasn’t Azula who came through that door.</p><p>It was Ty Lee, smiling brightly and broadly. She hauled her to her feet and pulled away the earthen gag, wrapping her arms around her in a warm embrace, as though the two of them were old friends. </p><p>“I’m so glad you’re here Katara!”</p><p>Katara blinked at her for a moment. “I didn’t have a choice in coming back,” Katara bit out. “I was captured by the Dai Li and paraded through the streets. We’re not friends.” </p><p>“Just give Azula a chance,” Ty Lee pleaded. “I know that if you help us find the Avatar, we will be the best of friends.”</p><p>Underneath Ty Lee’s large eyes and perpetual cheerfulness was something very sinister, and Katara knew that if she let her guard down for even a second, that it would be a good way to end up locked in this room until the war ended, probably starving to death in the process.</p><p>“Please help us,” Ty Lee pleaded again.</p><p>But there were some things, Katara decided, that would be worse than being forced to starve to death. </p><p>She leaned forward and smashed her forehead into Ty Lee’s nose as hard as she could manage. </p><p>She felt it crack. </p><p>The reaction from Ty Lee was immediate–a high-pitched cry of surprise, clutching her nose, which had already begun to bleed. </p><p>Ty Lee’s hands abandoned her nose--bruises were beginning to bloom, Katara noted with satisfaction. “Okay,” was all Ty Lee said, and somehow, that was more terrifying than these pleas of friendship that she’d been tossing out only seconds earlier. </p><p>The tension and adrenaline in Katara’s muscles subsided almost immediately as a series of quick jabs--similar, but not the same as the ones that usually robbed her bending, made the world close in on her.</p><p>-</p><p>When she woke up, she was staring Azula in the face, held up by two Dai Li agents. She tried to move her legs, but that was all in vain--whatever Ty Lee had done to her to knock her out had made her muscles weak and useless. </p><p>Azula grinned wickedly, crouching down so that she was level with Katara. “I’ll tell you a secret. Ty Lee gets on my nerves a lot too.” </p><p>Katara narrowed her eyes at her. “I’m not joining you.”</p><p>Azula barked out a laugh. “Oh, please.” </p><p>Katara gritted her teeth. “Did you send her in there to try and convince me to join you? To give up Aang.”</p><p>Azula laughed again and rolled her eyes. “Let’s just say that Ty Lee occasionally has some interesting notions about our enemies that I don’t share. Occasionally though, it’s fun to indulge her.” </p><p>It was simultaneously hard and easy to believe what Azula said, although she had the inescapable feeling that she was being toyed with for Azula’s own amusement. Katara narrowed her eyes at her. “You can put me back in that room. I’d rather die than give up Aang.”</p><p>Azula regarded her with amusement, before she drew back and snapped her fingers. A small, blue flame appeared at the tips of her fingers. She leaned back in, dragging the flame close to Katara’s face. </p><p>She could feel her skin becoming warmer and warmer until it was burning, until she was squirming involuntarily in the hold of the Dai Li agents, pain overpowering her lax muscles. </p><p>“Where is the Avatar going?” </p><p>Katara gritted her teeth and tried to squeeze her eyes shut, but Azula reached out and roughly pulled her face forward, forcing her eyes to fly open. The flame was pressed against her cheek. Katara shivered and tried as hard as she could not to scream. </p><p>“Where is the Avatar going?” Azula repeated. </p><p>“I don’t know,” Katara rasped out. Azula looked into her eyes, studying her like she was no more than a wasp fly. </p><p>Azula let go of her chin and sighed. “Useless,” she murmured, shaking her head. “Zuko was far more useful than you.” </p><p>“What?”</p><p>Azula grinned wolfishly at her. “You see, if there’s one thing that my brother is good at, it’s doing what he’s told. I sent him down into the catacombs to gain your trust. He fought with you and Aang on my orders. You know, I’ve sparred with him a thousand times. I know when he’s pulling his punches.” </p><p>She hadn’t seen Zuko since the two of them had been forced to enter the Earth Kingdom palace. While she had entertained the idea that he hadn’t changed--hearing it from Azula felt like she’d pressed into a wound. It made her want to believe that she was wrong--and that Zuko really had changed. </p><p>“You’re lying,” Katara spat out. </p><p>“Am I lying?” Azula mused, folding her arms across her chest. “I suppose I could be. I don’t know.” </p><p>She slunk back to the Earth King’s throne and crossed her legs as she perched there. “She’s of no use to me here. Send her to the Boiling Rock.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>little edit at the beginning for continuity if you've read this already</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The journey to the Boiling Rock took nine days, over land, until Katara and about twenty other prisoners were loaded into gondola that pulled them up the craggy mountainside. </p><p>Katara had done her best to try and map out every aspect of their journey, but it was hard. She was far more used to the routes that they took when they flew on Appa--and besides that, she was horribly uncomfortable. The restraints were digging into her skin (the new metal cuffs that the Dai Li had put on her before she’d been dragged out of the palace were uncomfortably tight, with no hope of adjustment), and the Fire Nation had crowded all twenty of them into as small a space as possible. It was hot, cramped, and smelled so bad that it burned her nose. At some point, her vial of spirit water had been confiscated. Her jewelry, however, was left untouched, guards sneering at it.</p><p>Not only that, but whatever (she assumed Ty Lee, she hadn’t exactly gotten a head’s up when it happened) Ty Lee had done to her to block her chi and force her muscles to relax had been worse than usual. It had taken almost all of her concentration just to force her arms to move when they were given their rations every night. </p><p>The burn mark on her cheek stung too. It hadn’t fully healed, and the guards in the unit were fond of reaching over to press on it when they were bored. Every time they did, Katara schooled her expression as best she could, determined not to let these guards know just how much it hurt. </p><p>Occasionally, she glimpsed in Zuko’s direction, but he seemed determined to avoid her gaze. She was mad at herself for even considering that Azula might be telling the truth, but then again, it wasn’t as though Zuko had given her a lot of opportunities to trust her before. Shortly before they’d been forced together in the caves, before he’d made the decision to fight on their side, she’d been convinced that he was lying in wait around every corner in Ba Sing Se.</p><p>It wasn’t exactly an unreasonable fear, considering the fact that at one point, he’d literally followed them across the globe.</p><p>“Move.” Dai Li agents had given way to Fire Nation soldiers when they’d officially crossed into Fire Nation territory. Then again, the whole world was practically Fire Nation territory.</p><p>Katara thought of Aang then, and bit her lip. Aang had Sokka and Toph and she had no doubt in her mind that he’d be able to find more teachers and friends that could help him. </p><p>It did not stop her from missing him, nor did it stop her from worrying. The fate of the world rested on his shoulders, and for the first time in months, she had no control over the outcome. </p><p>She took a breath.</p><p>“Move!”</p><p>A guard prodded her in the back, prompting her to step out of the gondola. The first thing that she felt was the unbearable heat, rising up around them, sinking into her entire body.</p><p>She looked straight ahead, just as she had in Ba Sing Se, cataloging everything that she possibly could--the cables that held the gondola, the high walls of the prison, the guard tower that rose so high into the sky that she couldn’t see all of it without leaning back to look. </p><p>There had to be other prisoners here--they’d all heard the alarms as they’d come in. It was hard to wonder if, perhaps, the Fire Nation viewed them as some kind of threat, even in what was, as the guards had reminded them repeatedly over the last week and a half--the most secure prison in the world. </p><p>She had to laugh.</p><p>The jab on her back was harder now. “Is something funny?”</p><p>“No,” Katara said, smiling broadly. “Nothing’s funny.” </p><p>The guard glared at her, which only made her laugh again. It wasn’t until the man balled up his fist and actually swung at her that she stopped, reeling back and clutching her face. </p><p>Her nose wasn’t broken, she could tell that much--she’d set Sokka’s nose more than once, most recently after he was thrown out of the Five-Seven-Five Society and managed to land directly on his face. But it still throbbed uncomfortably. Between her nose and the wound on her cheek, she was struggling to keep a straight face. She was determined not to give the Fire Nation any more of her pain. </p><p>“Water Tribe bitch,” he grunted, grabbing her arms to force her forward. </p><p>Katara took a deep breath to try and restrain herself from hissing out in pain. It took all of her concentration to keep moving forward and not completely give way under the guard’s power. </p><p>She was led past cells--if they could really be called that--the windows were so small that they made her think that they were closer to holes in the ground.</p><p>Immediately, her heart began to thud rapidly in her chest. Escaping from Ba Sing Se was one thing, but from a high-security prison while she was restrained and under heavy guard was something else entirely. Azula fully intended to throw her down into the deepest hole that she could find. Either Aang would take the bait, come out into the open and try to find her, or she would die in a hole in the wall, and Azula would be happy either way. </p><p>“In,” the guard grunted, shoving her so hard that she landed on her hands and knees in the cell. </p><p>The door swung shut. She was alone.</p><p>For the first time in more than a week, emotions washed over her, and she struggled to keep down a sob. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry,” she muttered to herself, over and over, a little prayer. “Don’t cry. You’re not going to cry. Please don’t cry.” </p><p>At the very least, it became something to focus on, something to distract her from being overwhelmed. </p><p>But it was hard. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking of Aang or Sokka or Toph, or even her Gran who was still waiting for them back in the South Pole, or her father and Bato, who were out fighting the Fire Nation Navy, desperately trying to bring an end to a war that she was beginning to feel might be unwinnable. </p><p>“No,” she murmured to herself. “No.” </p><p>Even without her, they could win this war. She had to believe that. She had to hold onto that. </p><p>If she didn’t, then, she thought, the Fire Nation would really have everything that she had. </p><p>-</p><p>She wasn’t sure if she’d dozed off or if she’d simply closed her eyes for a while. Time seemed to expand and contract in the little cell at the same time. It was funny, she thought, she’d been concerned that they were running out of time to have Aang face the Fire Lord, now she seemed to have nothing but time. </p><p>She laughed again, because it was the one thing that she could do to force herself not to cry.</p><p>“What’s so funny?”</p><p>At first, she’d expected it to be a guard--but it wasn’t. It was Zuko, slouched close to a little hole that had a metal grate over it. It wasn’t enough to look clearly at him--but it was enough to know that she wasn’t alone. </p><p>“I was just thinking,” she shrugged. “Aang and Sokka and I spent all this time worried about making sure that Aang learned the four elements so that he could face the Fire Lord. So that he could end this war. Now none of that really matters, I guess. I might not see either of them again.” </p><p>She sounded more disaffected by her statement than she felt--she felt like she might throw up or that something heavy had taken up residence in her chest. She didn’t sound like she felt very much of anything, she thought. </p><p>“If it helps,” Zuko said gruffly, “I’m a traitor now. I probably won’t see home again, let alone anyone I knew.” </p><p>This admission struck her in the chest. It was hard for her to think that he might be lying to her, unless he was a very, very good liar.</p><p>Considering that Azula was his sister, she supposed that she couldn’t rule that out entirely. </p><p>She thought of Aang in that moment and hoped wherever he was, that he was safe. </p><p>“Are you a traitor, Zuko?”</p><p>The question felt heavy in her mouth--it felt like it weighed the air down once she’d said it, but she had to say it. She knew that in her heart. </p><p>There was silence. </p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Do you have proof?”</p><p>“I’m sitting in a cell next to you, aren’t I?” Zuko said sharply. Katara could feel her blood boil--and this time, it had nothing to do with the temperature outside.</p><p>“Is that proof?” Katara snapped. “Because I don’t know a single, real thing about you, Zuko. I don’t know anything about you--for all I know, you and Azula could have teamed up together to try and separate me from my friends. Maybe she’s on her way right now to break you out of prison!” </p><p>The laughter that came from the other side of the wall was unexpected and sent chills down Katara’s spine. </p><p>“Do you know why our cells are connected?” Zuko asked. Katara’s gaze fell on the grate. </p><p>“No.”</p><p>“The Boiling Rock is the most secure prison in the Fire Nation. For war criminals, mostly. Back when I was a child, I had tutors for every subject imaginable, including military strategy. So, I repeat my question, do you know why our cells are connected?”</p><p>Katara was silent.</p><p>“You’re not dumb,” Zuko added as the grate became the one thing she could see. A singular obsession in her tiny cell. “You know what it’s for.”</p><p>“To scare you. Or me. If they come in to interrogate one of us,” Katara said slowly as she shifted to sit up properly, tried to see Zuko as best she could. “If I’m getting hurt, maybe you get worried and you talk. Or maybe they come in and they try to offer one of us a deal. Then you talk.” </p><p>“You think I’m going to talk?” Zuko asked.</p><p>“Well, I’m not going to talk. Ever. Got a present from Azula to prove it,” Katara couldn’t help but be slightly amused by the idea--that Azula had tried to make her talk and failed.</p><p>Zuko laughed--a rich laugh that Katara wanted to believe was genuine. Hoped was genuine. </p><p>“Zuko...why did you join us?”</p><p>There was a long sigh. “I haven’t joined anything, Katara.” </p><p>“No, I guess you haven’t.”</p><p>Katara wasn’t sure how long the silence lasted between the two of them. It was too dark in her cell to actually be able to properly tell the time--and there was part of her that thought that it might be better if she just gave up on that. What did time matter anyway?</p><p>“I had a life. Things were...good,” Zuko said hesitantly. “I don’t know why I wanted to change that.” </p><p>Katara furrowed her brow. “I don’t know what you mean, Zuko.” It was hard to parse out if he meant that he’d changed or that he hadn’t wanted to. </p><p>Zuko let out a long sigh again. “Just...forget it. We don’t have to talk.” </p><p>“Like we have a full social schedule in here,” Katara shot back. But only silence followed.</p><p>-</p><p>Days followed. She was almost sure it was only days, because the meals that were shoved through the slot in her cell door came infrequently. When they did, she was given a small amount of water (perhaps, Katara had thought, amused, they did not think she was much of a waterbender), a mound of the driest bread that she’d ever had in her life, and some kind of weird gray goopy thing that sloshed in the dish every time that it was thrown toward her.</p><p>She avoided it at first, but the insistent gurgling in her stomach made her give in the fourth time that it was thrown at her. </p><p>The little bit of water that sloshed in the tin cup, though, called to her. Katara stared down at it for a long time, lost in the tiny ripples on its thin surface. There had to be something she could do--some way that she could save it, squirrel it away, use it as a weapon. </p><p>It was just then that the door to Zuko’s cell swung open, a deep metallic sound that scrambled her thoughts. </p><p>“Ah, if it isn’t the Traitor Prince,” a deep voice came from the other cell. Katara’s entire body tensed.</p><p>“Warden,” Zuko said in a measured tone. </p><p>“It’s a shame that my niece wasted so much time on you, isn’t it? You aren’t a future Fire Lord, you’re nothing but a petulant child that thinks that he understands the world better than everyone around him.” </p><p>There was rustling and indistinct voices muttering to each other--Katara was confident that the Warden had brought more men to Zuko’s cell. “Her Highness, Princess Azula, told me that I might need to take matters into my own hands to make sure that you stay put.”</p><p>She took a deep, shuddering breath--she didn’t dare to try and look through the tiny hole between their cells to try and see what was happening. She could guess well enough--men had grabbed him and were holding him down. At first, she heard nothing from Zuko--maybe, she thought, he was trying to make himself seem like he was above the situation or maybe he was just trying to pretend that he wasn’t scared.<br/>
Then.</p><p>“No, no, no, stop!”</p><p>There was a sharp crack in Zuko’s cell, followed by a high, nearly inhuman-sounding wail that sounded like it would have been more appropriate in a Water Tribe ghost story. </p><p>She clamped a hand over her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut, her entire body shaking as she leaned against the cell wall. Don’t make a sound, she told herself. For Tui and La’s sake, don’t make a fucking sound. </p><p>They want you to make a sound.</p><p>Don’t you dare.</p><p>Laughter followed. Katara curled further in on herself.</p><p>In that moment, wondering about Zuko’s motives didn’t seem to matter anymore. </p><p>She was going to get out of there. And she was going to bring Zuko with her.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She leaned against the wall and took a deep, steadying breath. </p><p>It was clear that Zuko was whimpering inside his cell--she hadn’t had a clear view on what they’d done to him, but it had to be bad. She was fairly confident that he had at least one broken bone, which could complicate an escape attempt, she thought. </p><p>She pursed her lips. Just because it was complicated didn’t mean that it was impossible. She had spent enough time with Aang to know that much was true. </p><p>She knew that they didn’t--or more accurately, she, since she didn’t have a way to explain her plan to Zuko without fear of being overheard--didn’t exactly have all the time in the world to wait to escape. Time might not have meant much inside the prison, but it still meant something outside--every second that passed meant that Aang was getting closer to needing to face the Fire Lord and put an end to the war.</p><p>Katara had faith in Aang, she really did, but if she thought about it for more than a few moments, her chest would tighten--because the odds were still not in their favor. Finding another Jeong Jeong that would be willing to teach firebending to the Fire Nation’s most wanted person was only one part of it--Aang had been able to sink a Fire Navy fleet in Northern Water Tribe territory, but that had been one squadron--not all of them. This was war, it wasn’t just some morality tale where Aang could go off and face the Fire Lord alone and be able to win the day.</p><p>Seconds bled into each other. At some point, Zuko was taken from his cell. She didn’t know how long he was gone, but when he returned, he was silent. She couldn’t even hear him whimpering in pain anymore, and somehow that was worse. </p><p>She knew he was there, at least--she could make out a tuft of dark hair through the little space between their cells.</p><p>She wasn’t sure how long she’d been resting her head in her lap--any some point, food had been thrown through the door, a mass of something sludgy and gray and a piece of bread studded with mold rocked on the plate.</p><p>There was a small amount of water in the cup--enough to drink, but not enough to bend. </p><p>At least, that’s what the Boiling Rock Prison guards thought, and that’s what she’d thought too. </p><p>She swirled the water around in the cup, scanning the small, dark cell. There had to be something here that she was missing. <br/>She waved her hand over the cup (which was awkward and made the joints in her wrists ache because of the restraints), the water shifting from side to side at her will, before rising out of the tin cup. She moved it back and forth, before her eyes settled on the lock on the cuffs.</p><p>Her vision narrowed to that one, small hole that the Dai Li and the Fire Nation had used to pass her back and forth across the continent. She took a deep breath.</p><p>Aang--as much as he would never admit it--had liked to rise early to meditate. “The monks always taught us that there is wisdom in silence,” he’d said, and when he’d said that, Katara had thought that he seemed so much older, so much more thoughtful, than someone who was really only twelve years old.</p><p>Maybe now was the time to see if that really worked.</p><p>She closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. The only thing that existed was her breath, rising and falling, and the water. The water flowed. The water pulsed like a beating heart.</p><p>The water worked its way through the lock on the cuffs, winding through the unique pattern until it froze, and forced the cuffs into thinking that it was the key. </p><p>Katara opened her eyes as the cuffs fell away. A grin spread across her features. But, she was well aware of the fact that she couldn’t celebrate yet--just because she wasn’t restrained anymore didn’t mean that she was close to being able to escape the Boiling Rock. She’d still have to make it out of the prison and off the island, with Zuko, who was most definitely injured in some way, and figure out a way to rejoin Aang, Sokka, and Toph without being captured again by the Fire Nation.</p><p>Katara took a deep, steadying breath and shook her head. She and Aang and Sokka had dodged Zuko and the Fire Nation around the world. How hard could a prison break be?</p><p>-</p><p>As it turned out, very hard.</p><p>She still had the small amount of water that she’d used to break the cuffs open, but it wasn’t enough to force the door to her cell open. Not to mention that inside her cell, she was left more or less alone for hours on end. The Fire Nation didn’t care about what she was doing alone in her cell--but they probably would care if she marched right out of the cell and tried to leave, especially with the traitor prince in tow. </p><p>She wouldn’t have a lot of time--she couldn’t meditate and try to force locks open or take her time taking down any guards in her path--if she was going to escape, she would need to act as soon as the right moment appeared.</p><p>No hesitation.</p><p>She took a deep breath and leaned against the wall, glancing over at Zuko, who was curled up by the grate, and as far as she could tell, hadn’t moved for hours.</p><p>“Zuko,” she whispered.</p><p>Silence.</p><p>“Zuko,” she repeated again, slightly louder this time, as loud as she would dare.</p><p>When he turned to face her, she could see patches of skin on his neck that had reddened, and some that had turned a glossy white. His face was swollen too--like someone had recently hit him.</p><p>She tried to school her expression into something hard and unreadable, but she’d obviously failed, because Zuko’s mouth twisted into an angry, standoffish frown. </p><p>“Don’t.”</p><p>“Zuko--”</p><p>“I said, don’t.”</p><p>Silence fell, and Katara’s stomach twisted uncomfortably. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>Zuko let out a cruel laugh that sent a chill up her spine. “Right, you’re sorry.” </p><p>“I am.”</p><p>Whatever retort that Zuko had lined up seemed to have died in his throat, because he said nothing, instead, rolling his lips and smacking them together. </p><p>“I didn’t imagine that it would happen like this when I left home,” Zuko murmured. Katara furrowed her brow. </p><p>“I didn’t imagine this either,” she admitted. She hadn’t thought about things like military strategy and war councils and prisoners and torture. Even though war had touched her family, so many miles away in the frozen tundra of the South Pole, she’d never imagined the deadly scale of conflict or what she and Sokka and Aang and Toph would face and need to face in order to bring the war to an end.</p><p>Zuko let out another laugh. It was still cruel and sardonic, but she could tell that it was aimed at himself. “It’s hilarious when I think about it, that I was banished three years ago for disappointing my father, and now I’m an even bigger disappointment.”</p><p>“You’re not a disappointment.”</p><p>Zuko shook his head. “The Warden was kind enough to remind me that I’m a coward, and now I’m going to die a coward.”</p><p>“You’re not going to die,” Katara said sharply.</p><p>“My leg’s broken and they keep hauling me to freeze in the cooler for longer and longer periods of time,” Zuko shook his head. “Probably just for fun, too. It’s not like Azula needs me alive.”</p><p>If Zuko’s leg was broken, that definitely complicated things--and they were pretty complicated to begin with. And if the guards kept freezing him, it wouldn’t just give him ice burns or make it harder to bend--it would make him sluggish and drowsy--and harder to fight.</p><p>She was truly in this alone.</p><p>“It’s not going to happen, Zuko,” Katara said firmly. “I’m going to make sure that it doesn’t.”</p><p>Zuko snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, sure you won’t.”</p><p>- </p><p>She waited in the darkness--she didn’t try to talk to Zuko again. Partly, because it was more practical not to. She didn’t have a good view of the outside of their cells, and the last thing that she wanted was for him to be hauled off to a cooler again. </p><p>And partly, if she had to admit it, at least to herself, was that talking to Zuko was complicated and difficult. Because as many people as she’d comforted and helped after her mother had died, none of them had ever dealt with an entire country wanting them dead.</p><p>She spent more time in the dark thinking of Aang, Sokka, and Toph--wondering if they were looking for, and going back and forth between hoping they were and hoping they weren’t. The fact that she hadn’t been dragged out of the cell, she thought, was a positive sign. If they had Aang, then she wouldn’t be nearly as valuable anymore.</p><p>Not that anything in this situation really felt positive.</p><p>She tried to force thoughts of Aang and Sokka and Toph out of her mind. Worrying about them wasn’t going to be helpful. </p><p>In fact, she tried to force herself to think of nothing at all. She didn’t have the patience to attempt to properly meditate, but she still sat in complete silence, waiting. The right moment to act was going to come, and when it did, she was going to be ready.</p><p>- </p><p>Hours passed. Katara’s stomach rumbled and then, likely upon realizing that she wasn’t going to get actual food, stopped. She sighed. The door only opened a fraction on its hinges when a guard brought her food--she wasn’t going to have more than one chance, especially if the guard happened to notice that she wasn’t restrained anymore. </p><p>She waited.</p><p>-</p><p>When the door opened and the tray was thrown in, she didn’t hesitate.</p><p>She moved her hand quickly, sending icy needles deep into the guard’s hands. “You fucking bitch!” the man cried, melting the needles. But by the time he’d gotten into a stance to attack, Katara had slammed the try as hard as she could into the man’s face. The man crumpled almost immediately. </p><p>For a moment, she was a little amused by the fact that the Fire Nation kept giving her evidence at every turn that they underestimated her--this man, for example, had pulled his helmet back, exposing his nose. They didn’t expect a peasant from the Water Tribe to be able to see weakness when it was right in front of her.</p><p>Katara reached over for the ring of keys around the man’s waist. Her heart was thudding in her chest as she tried to find the one that worked on the door to Zuko’s cell--if anyone heard the guard drop, they likely didn’t have very much time. </p><p>The door was steel and very heavy, and it took all of her strength to pry it open. Now that she was standing and exerting herself, she was much more aware of the fact that she had barely eaten in days, even with adrenaline thrumming through her veins. <br/>Zuko was huddled in a corner, curled in on himself protectively. Katara’s heart clenched for a moment at the sight of someone who had once been so terrifying to her as so vulnerable. </p><p>“If you want to die here, then it seems like you’ll get your chance sooner or later,” Katara couldn’t help but glare down at him. “But you don’t have to. It’s up to you.”</p><p>Zuko stood shakily, a sharp intake of breath when he put weight on his leg. “Okay.”</p><p>For a moment, she’d expected him to say something else--maybe to explain that he was sorry that he’d spent so much time trying to capture Aang. Or even to say that he’d misjudged her. But he didn’t say anything else. In the long run, it was probably good that he hadn’t. There just wasn’t time. </p><p>She undid Zuko’s restraints with another key on the guard’s keyring and pulled Zuko after her as they hid behind a corner and waited for some guards to pass. “Can you bend?” Katara asked, though she wasn’t sure why she had even bothered to ask--it wasn’t exactly a surprise when Zuko shook his head. </p><p>“That’s fine,” Katara nodded, “We just have to get out into the open.”</p><p>She very much doubted that she’d be able to fight more than one guard--especially without the element of surprise on her side--but if they got out into the open, then that would change everything--if they did, they could escape, she knew it. </p><p>If there were other prisoners on this floor, she couldn’t tell. It was quiet, and their footsteps, even when they stepped lightly, echoed way too far for comfort. </p><p>She’d mapped out the route to their cells as best she could when they were being taken to them, but now, her head felt muzzy, like it was full of cotton. She tried to force herself to remember the route--but even as she was in the middle of trying to retrace their steps, a guard walked past.</p><p>Zuko quickly pulled her back, and out of the guard’s line of sight. Katara’s heart was thrumming wildly in her chest. Zuko nodded at her and she nodded back. She felt a sense of gratitude that he hadn’t just left her to be seen--and she hoped that she was able to convey that in the moment. </p><p>They stayed close to the wall, moving slowly. No alarms had gone off, which made Katara think that whoever had gone to her cell was still out cold and hadn’t been discovered yet. </p><p>Deep down too, she knew that this whole escape attempt would go to shit if the gondola wasn’t there--she’d become more adept at moving large bodies of water, but she wasn’t Aang--she very much doubted that she could move all of the water that surrounded the prison on her own. </p><p>She took a deep breath, and could feel a knot of nausea rising in her stomach. They had to keep moving. </p><p>“This way,” Zuko murmured so softly that she had to strain to hear him. She followed him around a corner and then around another--and then they were in the open--</p><p>And the yard was full of guards.</p><p>For one, terrifying moment, Katara wondered if this hadn’t been some kind of trap--if Zuko hadn’t really been injured this entire time--except, he looked shocked. More shocked than, in a way, Katara even felt. </p><p>Because there just wasn’t time. </p><p>She had only a fraction of a second before the guards would start sending jets of fire in their direction or before these guards would notify the ones that were still inside that there were prisoners out of their cells. </p><p>So Katara lifted her arms and then brought them down quickly, a wave of water from the volcano coming down hot on the guards. Those that weren’t hit by the brunt of the water screamed--an inhuman, horrible sound--as their skin sloughed off their bodies. </p><p>She didn’t have time to think about the other guards in the prison or the other prisoners, many of whom were likely still locked inside their cells. She looked up and noticed that the gondola was within striking distance, likely having just dropped off a new group of prisoners. </p><p>“Come on,” Katara grabbed Zuko’s hand as he hobbled after her. The gondola was moving fast, and every step that Zuko took made her wince--even if he wasn’t showing that he was in pain. “We’re going to have to jump--can you jump?”</p><p>But as soon as she’d asked, Zuko had jumped for the gondola, hands grasping the edge of it firmly and hauling himself up. He reached out and held out his hand--and Katara, conscious of the voices of guards shouting in the distance, jumped and took his hand.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The gondola swung back and forth wildly. Katara held on as tightly as she could, Zuko by her side. </p><p>“They’re going to try to cut the line,” Zuko murmured, wincing slightly as he tried to rest his weight against the side of the gondola. “If they do that, then it’s over.” </p><p>Katara peered down into the prison yard, which was receding out of view. Even from a distance, she could see the remains of the guard’s bodies, all bone, blood, and sinew, still standing perversely, as though they had been frozen in time. </p><p>There was no alarm. Katara furrowed her brow--there was only silence. Unending, ghostly silence. </p><p>“There’s no one there,” Katara’s voice came out in a whisper, death staring back at her. </p><p>Zuko leaned up a bit further, craning his neck to try and see past her. When he managed to see the yard properly--as far away as they were--his lip twitched for a moment, as though he was about to say something, before he looked out the side of the gondola, silent. </p><p>“Did you want to get caught?” Katara asked gently. Zuko didn’t acknowledge her. </p><p>As the prison receded into the distance, her stomach was in knots. This felt far too easy–maybe they were going to chase them down the mountainside. Maybe they were banking on the fact that they would end up at the coastline and decide that without a boat, that they should turn back. Or maybe this was a trap.</p><p>Katara shook her head and shoved the thought to the back of her mind. She couldn’t think about that now, she decided as the gondola approached the dock at the top of the volcano--she had to focus on getting off of the island first--then she would deal with everything that inevitably came next. </p><p>When she stepped off of the gondola, she offered her hand to Zuko, who ignored her again, pushing past her as he limped off of the platform. </p><p>Katara had seen the volcano when they’d arrived, but now that it stretched before them, arid and empty, it felt like an infinite space of nothingness.</p><p>“At least let me help you,” Katara said, a bit more sharply than she intended. She didn’t know what had prompted Zuko to suddenly try to ignore her, but she wasn’t going to let it last. </p><p>She reached out, and surprisingly enough, Zuko didn’t try to shrug her off. Instead, he leaned in her touch, using her to support his body weight. It was struggle at first, since he was taller and weighed more than she did, but here, she took a leaf out of Toph’s book, trying to make herself into an immovable, sturdy object. </p><p>But she couldn’t help but feel small, making her way toward the shore, supporting Zuko as they navigated their way down the rocky mountainside. </p><p>“I can walk,” Zuko grumbled after a few minutes, which prompted Katara to huff in annoyance. </p><p>“You can’t,” she countered. “You saw back there that we weren’t being followed, so...we can take a little more time.” After everything that Zuko had done, he deserved to be abandoned there, injured and with no one coming for him--but at the same time, Katara thought that now, it might be a little more complicated than a simple question of what he deserved. </p><p>“You could have left me there,” Zuko added, which made Katara grit her teeth as she kicked a rock aside. </p><p>“I wasn’t going to leave you there,” Katara sucked in a breath. “Even with everything that happened.” She couldn’t--and didn’t forget the way that he’d gone to the ends of the earth to try and capture Aang, who was devoting his life to trying to end the war. She had no illusions about the fact that she and Zuko had been on opposite sides of this war. </p><p>But she still couldn’t leave him. Not after he’d fought Azula. Not after the guards in the Boiling Rock had tortured him. She had known for a long time that she had a bottomless well of anger inside of her--anger toward the Fire Nation, for taking her mother, for starting the war, for taking her father, for creeping across the globe. </p><p>Toward Zuko.</p><p>But this crumpled boy in her arms wasn’t the same Zuko that she’d first seen in the South Pole. It wasn’t just the physical changes, like longer hair and compact muscles, but something behind his eyes. She had caught it here and there, every time Zuko looked toward her and then looked away again. Something was different. </p><p>“You should leave me,” Zuko murmured as he sucked in a breath and shuffled around a rock. “I will slow you down. I’m fine here. I have accepted my fight.” </p><p>Katara clenched her jaw and furrowed her brow. “You know that I’m not going to let you do that.” <br/>It wasn’t a question.</p><p>“I don’t know what you would and wouldn’t do,” Zuko pointed out as they approached the shore. </p><p>Katara bit her lip. “That’s true. Just like I don’t know what you would and wouldn’t do.” If Zuko wanted to talk about who was making the bigger gamble here, then that was a contest that she was going to win. Being imprisoned in the Fire Nation wasn’t in the same universe was being hauled in front of Aang and Sokka and Toph to stand judgment. </p><p>Zuko grew quieter, as if that were at all possible. “I was sick of it,” he said softly. Katara’s eyes and lungs were beginning to burn as she nearly dragged him forward through the dirt and the rock. They were so close now, and she couldn’t think about anything else other than getting off of the fucking island, and she certainly couldn’t think too deeply about Zuko’s motivations in the caves. </p><p>But it meant something, she thought. But she wasn’t going to let it mean anything when they were so close to being able to leave the island. </p><p>When they reached the shore, Katara pursed her lips. “I’m going to have to let go of you for a second. Is that alright?”</p><p>Zuko shrugged. “I don’t really think that I have a choice, do I?”</p><p>Katara made a face. He didn’t, not if she was going to be able to bend. “Just try not to put too much wait on it, okay? I’ll try to do my best with it once we’re off the island.” <br/>She let go of Zuko as gently as she could, and he staggered away from her, legs shaking as he stood next to her. </p><p>She moved her arms back and forth fluidly, and water froze before them, forming a thick raft of ice. Katara reached out to pull Zuko along, a bit less gently than she’d eased him down the mountain. “Come on,” she murmured, “Time to go.” </p><p>Zuko curled up on the ice, and she held out her hands, making the water push them away from the shore. </p><p>“It’s probably miles until the next island,” Zuko said, looking off to the horizon. Katara pursed her lips. </p><p>“Then it’s miles until the next island,” Katara sighed. </p><p>Nothing but ocean stretched before them, and Katara felt even smaller than she had on the mountainside. </p><p>Freedom, she thought, did not make her feel so free.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After a while, the ice didn’t feel cold anymore. The horizon, however, still felt vast and endless. It was getting easier for Katara to imagine that the two of them might have been stuck drifting on that raft forever. </p><p>Zuko, at least, had let her heal his leg. He hadn’t said anything since, nothing more than grumbling in pain when the bones snapped back into place. </p><p>“If you want to pretend like I’m not here,” Katara said, pursing her lips gently, “Then I guess that’s fine. Could also leave you here to drown too, if that’s what you want.” </p><p>She wasn’t sure if it had been hours or days out on the water--she’d long since gotten used to her mouth feeling dry and her stomach feeling empty. But this was the first time that Zuko looked directly at her with anything other than hopelessness hiding behind his eyes. </p><p>And honestly, she would take anger over complete silence. </p><p>“You should have left me there,” Zuko grumbled, looking off toward the horizon.</p><p>“I’m starting to wonder why I didn’t,” Katara mused, shaking her head. “But you don’t have to come with me when we get to shore. You can go and do whatever you want.”</p><p>Zuko let out a bark of laughter. “Right, because I had so many options. Maybe I’ll even be welcomed back to the Fire Nation as a hero!”</p><p>Katara made a face. “You don’t have to say things like that.”</p><p>“Things like what?”</p><p>Katara let out a breath. “I don’t know. Sarcastic, like you’re dancing around saying something real.” </p><p>Zuko scrubbed a hand over his face. “The currents will take us further into Fire Nation territory. Even if they didn’t, and we went to the North or South Pole or landed near the Earth Kingdom, I would probably land right back in a prison the second that someone recognized me, either in the Fire Nation or some place else.”</p><p>“So what you’re saying is that you’ve completely given up,” Katara shook her head and rested on her knees. </p><p>“I haven’t given up,” Zuko shot back, although his tone was lacking a lot of the venom that she had expected from him. “I’m just being realistic about what’s going to happen. You might have escaped, but I haven’t. No matter where I go in the world, I’m still the traitor prince, and my sister or my father or whoever else will try to lock me up as soon as they get the chance.” </p><p>Katara gave him a withering look. “Yeah, because itraveling with the Avatar hasn’t made me or my brother into a target.” it wasn’t just Zuko that they’d had to worry about, but Zuko--and his family--had definitely made up the lioneagle’s share of their problems. </p><p>Zuko sighed, shifting on the ice raft so that he could face her directly. “I’m sorry.” </p><p>For a second, she was certain that she’d imagined him speaking, let alone imagined him actually apologizing. She licked her lips, the skin cracking, and looked away from him, back toward the prison, which had long since receded into nothingness. “It isn’t really something that you can apologize for.” </p><p>Aang was the best hope that the world had for peace in a generation. Aang had never had the chance to live any life other than the one that had been chosen for him the moment that the monks had told him who he was, what his destiny was. He deserved better than Zuko, who had tried to capture him at every turn.</p><p>“I’m not stupid,” she said, although it wasn’t full of as much venom and bite as she had intended. “I know what would have happened if you had actually managed to capture him. You would have killed him.” </p><p>There was no point in dancing around that. She understood why it was so important for Aang to avoid the Fire Nation. They weren’t just planning on interrogating him or telling him nicely that they would like him to stop being the Avatar. </p><p>She knew who Azula had been aiming for when the lightning bolt hit the rocks in the cave underneath Ba Sing Se. She wanted Aang to die, she wanted the Avatar cycle to die with him, and she wanted the Fire Nation to finish what they’d started a century ago. </p><p>The world would burn--figuratively and literally.</p><p>“Yes,” Zuko said in a flat and measured tone. “I would have.” </p><p>His words hung in the air, and for a moment, Katara entertained the idea of actually drowning him for what he’d done and what he’d wanted to do--to Aang and to the entire world.</p><p>But it wouldn’t have solved anything, she thought, even if it would have made her feel better--at least for as long as she was on the raft. </p><p>“Would you now?”</p><p>“Does it make a difference?”</p><p>Katara considered this for a moment--once they reached land, they could go their separate ways. She would never have to see Zuko again if she didn’t want to. </p><p>“I don’t know,” Katara murmured. It would have been nice, she thought, to be able to tell him that no, it did not matter, but that wasn’t entirely true. </p><p>A small smile appeared on Zuko’s features for a fleeting moment--so fleeting, in fact, that Katara for a moment doubted that she’d actually seen it. “I wouldn’t trust me, if I were you.” </p><p>“It’s fine,” Katara started to smile too, even though she felt a little ridiculous. “If you try anything stupid I’ll just throw you overboard. Problem solved.”</p><p>Zuko’s smile grew a little wider, and for a moment, there was nothing but them and the ocean that stretched before them. It felt simple. </p><p>“I had a life, and I guess...I liked that life,” Zuko murmured. “I liked being this person who would get up in the morning and go to work and have a purpose beyond...war. Living in Ba Sing Se as a fugitive was probably the best time of my life. Is that sad?”</p><p>Katara shrugged. “I don’t really know anymore, if I’m being completely honest.” Traveling around the world with Aang and Sokka and Toph too had upended any sense she had of what it was like to live a normal life. </p><p>“But, I guess,” she said slowly, trying to excavate the right words to describe how she felt--and why-- “It’s not sad. It’s not wrong to not want to play a part in a war. Not this war.” She left off points she wanted to make about the scale of destruction that the Fire Nation had wrought across the globe--and personally. She didn’t need to think about her mother at that moment. </p><p>“It’s what my whole life was about. Being a good soldier. A good commander. The pride of the Fire Nation. Being the honorable future Fire Lord,” Zuko murmured, pointedly avoiding her gaze. Zuko’s evasiveness would have seemed annoying at any other moment, but right then, when thoughts of her mother were making her eyes burn, she appreciated it. </p><p>“And now?”</p><p>“Now?” Zuko shrugged. “Now I don’t know. I don’t...I don’t want this war. That’s all I know.”</p><p>“Do you want a war?”</p><p>Zuko furrowed his brow. “Do you want me to want a war?”</p><p>“I guess I just...I don’t know why you fought Azula. It didn’t make any sense.”</p><p>“Then why did you rescue me if it didn’t make sense?” It made something feel like it was twisting in her chest to have Zuko call their escape a rescue. </p><p>“Because it wasn’t right, what happened in that prison, Zuko. It wasn’t right. I wasn’t going to leave you there. I wasn’t going to leave anyone there.” She was well aware of the fact that they would have killed him if they had the chance, but when she tried to say as much, her moth felt perilously dry. </p><p>“Maybe you should have.” </p><p>Night was falling, and Katara was beginning to grow extremely irritated with Zuko’s desire to go in circles to try and prove that he should have been left behind. She could feel that same well of anger rising inside of her all over again, although maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t on the verge of throwing him over into the water.</p><p>Maybe. It was still up in the air at this point if she was being completely honest with herself. </p><p>“Zuko,” she sighed. “I’m sick of you telling me that I should have left you behind. I didn’t leave you behind. Unless you want to go back there and turn yourself over to the guards, I don’t know what to tell you. You’re out now, and you’re free to do whatever you want. You could decide to run a cabbage stall in the middle of Kyoshi Island. You could travel the world. You could do literally anything you wanted.” </p><p>Though perhaps, with the world on the brink of cataclysmic conflict, it wasn’t entirely true that Zuko could do anything that he wanted, especially when he was, at least in a corner of the world and to Fire Nation troops abroad, easily recognizable as the Crown Prince, but pretending like there was a choice felt necessary in that moment, especially when Zuko seemed as though he was on the cusp of caving in on himself. </p><p>Zuko was silent (like that was a surprise), before he turned to look at her for the first time in what felt like days. “What are you going to do?”</p><p>Katara paused for a moment, before she shrugged. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? I’m going to go and try to find Aang.” </p><p>Perhaps there was a risk in telling Zuko this, but something told her that Azula wasn’t listening somewhere, all the way out there in the middle of the ocean. “Are you going to follow me?”</p><p>It did occur to her that there was a kernel of truth in what Zuko said--there weren’t a lot of places that he could go unnoticed, and one wrong move, and he would be right back in the Boiling Rock, or another Fire Nation prison. Katara didn’t know much about them, but she knew that the Fire Nation held people that they deemed to be enemies of the state high up in the country’s mountains. She didn’t want to speculate about what went on there, though thinking back to the crack of Zuko’s leg breaking and the sight of his distended, frozen skin made her think that was only a fraction of what went on in those prisons. </p><p>“I don’t know what I would do,” Zuko admitted, “But I...I want to be useful. That’s what I know.” </p><p>Land was creeping into the horizon, growing larger and larger as the seconds passed. She could hesitate and ruminate all she wanted about Zuko’s motives, but the time for action was coming once again. Now that they were deep into Fire Nation territory, there would be absolutely no margin for error.</p><p>Although, she had just managed to break out of an escape-proof prison. Maybe she was a lot more capable of working with no margin of error than she thought that she was. </p><p>“You can come with me,” Katara said suddenly, “But if you give me the slightest reason to make me think that you’re going to hurt me or Aang, I’m not going to hesitate. You saw what I did to those guards at the Boiling Rock. I am more than capable of killing. I am not the scared little girl that I used to be.” </p><p>She’d been forced to grow up over the span of a few short months--she’d sat in war councils with generals. She’d debated military strategy. She’d met the king of the largest country in the entire world. </p><p>“I know,” Zuko said gently, “But I don’t think that I’m the same person, either.” </p><p>Katara clenched her jaw and nodded. Maybe, she thought, that was true. “Okay,” she murmured, “Okay.” </p><p>They would be landing soon, if she’d calculated the distance to shore correctly. She just hoped that she’d made the right choice.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Under the cover of darkness, on the raft in the ocean, it was easy to fool herself into thinking that they were going anywhere but the middle of Fire Nation territory.</p><p>With a wave of her hand, the icy raft melted back into the dark ocean water. Now that they were on dry land, with the sun high in the sky, however, it was hard to know what to do next. Shelter, was a given. Food. Disguises. But trying to figure out how to find Aang was nothing short of overwhelming.</p><p>One thing at a time, she reminded herself. </p><p>She reached out to pull Zuko along with her, almost forgetting that his leg was healed. Zuko went easily, although Katara let go after a couple of seconds, suddenly embarrassed that she had touched him at all. </p><p>“Do you know where we are?” she whispered, and while for a moment, she worried that this might have been a completely ridiculous question, Zuko nodded. </p><p>“We’re on the mainland, actually, probably about fifty miles or so from the Captiol.”</p><p>The thought of being so close to the Capitol made Katara’s stomach churn. She took a deep breath. </p><p>“In fact, if we had drifted further, there’s every chance that we would have come across the Great Gates of Azulon after a couple more days.”</p><p>Katara didn’t know what those were, but it didn’t sound like it was something that they wanted to reach. As it was, they were extremely lucky that they hadn’t been followed by a Fire Navy ship or greeted by Fire Nation soldiers when they landed on the shore. </p><p>They’d only been walking for a few minutes, when Zuko spoke. </p><p>“Do you know how you’re going to find Aang?”</p><p>Katara took a deep breath and shook her head, looking for any signs of life on the horizon. “I’ll figure it out.” </p><p>Deep in Fire Nation territory, she frankly had no idea how she was going to be able to find him, especially traveling with Zuko. And while she (mostly) didn’t think that he was looking to capture Aang, the fact that they were deep in Fire Nation territory didn’t exactly make her feel optimistic about finding him. </p><p>In the distance, she could see a few houses with smoke rising from the chimneys. Her stomach twisted in knots. They were going to have to be extremely careful to make sure that no one saw them. There was no way in hell that she was going back to that forsaken prison, or anywhere else. She would find Aang and Sokka and Toph, and they would end this war. She didn’t care if she had to walk barefoot and starving across the entire Fire Nation in order to make that happen. </p><p>“If we follow the tree line,” Katara mused, gesturing to the large trees that dotted the expanse in front of them, “We can get past the town.”</p><p>Zuko nodded, “We’ll have to stay out of sight.”</p><p>Almost as soon as he’d said that they needed to stay out of sight, he abruptly pulled her back. Furrowing her brow as she practically fell into his side, she noticed his reason for alarm.</p><p>Up ahead--not far enough for them to be out of sight--were two men in Fire Nation soldier uniforms, mounted on ostrich horses. They weren’t carrying a standard with them, which meant that they were likely alone, on patrol out by the shore. </p><p>“We need to get to cover,” Zuko said, pulling her along with him. It wouldn’t have been a problem, she thought, if there were more than a few shrubs and trees here, and there, some of which were barely big enough for her to hide behind, let alone Zuko, who was at least eight inches taller than she was. </p><p>Only a couple seconds later, a jet stream of fire flew by, and singed the leaves they’d been trying to fit behind. “Do you think they saw us?” Katara asked, and despite the fact that her heart was thrumming in her chest, and her heart felt twisted up with anxiety, she smiled a little, and wondered if Sokka would have found that funny. </p><p>Both she and Zuko spiraled out of the way of another stream of fire. She could see one of them smiling beneath his helmet. “The traitor prince. I believe we will be rewarded handsomely for bringing you home, now won’t we, Lee?”</p><p>Zuko hadn’t been able to bend when they left the prison--he’d been too cold and in too much pain. Come to think of it, Katara had no idea if he could bend now. She’d healed him, sure, but she wasn’t sure what kind of long term effect the coolers might have had on his bending. </p><p>Katara cast a brief glance in his direction, only long enough to clock his position, before fire zoomed over her head--she had to move, and she had to move quickly.</p><p>Zuko dodged their fire effortlessly, picking up stones on the ground and aiming them at the soldiers. “Crown Prince of the Fire Nation!” one of the soldiers taunted. “And he can’t even bend!”</p><p>Katara’s stomach twisted uncomfortably, but she couldn’t think now. There wasn’t time. </p><p>She wasn’t truthfully aiming for the trees nearby--she was far more used to bending large bodies of water, or using her waterskin in a fight. She was just hoping to pull water from somewhere, even if she was, in hindsight, too far from the ocean to be able to feel its push and pull with any kind of accuracy. </p><p>The water from one of the taller trees nearby shot like a spear through one of the soldiers, forcing his mouth open grotesquely. He gurgled, dark blood and bile pushing itself through his open mouth, before he collapsed, and the ostrich horse, likely confused, ran off.</p><p>The other soldier advanced on them, hands full of fire For a brief moment, Katara’s breath caught in her chest. </p><p>That was when Zuko leapt up, arms around the soldier, taking advantage of the few seconds of surprise that he had to ruthlessly snap his neck. </p><p>When the other soldier collapsed too, slumping all the way off the ostrich horse and landing on the ground, Katara felt a full body shiver working its way up her spine. “Fuck,” she murmured.</p><p>“It’s going to be fine,” Zuko said calmly, as he leapt off of the ostrich horse. He grabbed a waterskin that was attached to the saddle, before throwing it over to Katara. He then slapped the ostrich horse and it ran off in the same direction as the other soldier’s mount. “They’ll avoid people for a while--we probably have at least a couple of days before that, at least.” </p><p>“What about them?” Katara asked, gesturing at the bodies of the two soldiers. She had no illusions about what would have happened to them if they hadn’t taken them out, but it didn’t mean that it didn’t make her feel sick to her stomach. War was unpleasant, disgusting, and evil.</p><p>“Sink them,” Zuko said, and it didn’t escape her notice that he didn’t offer to burn them. </p><p>It was slow work, as they carried the bodies back the short way to the shore, before gathering enough rocks to reliably hold their bodies down. Katara froze the rocks to their bodies, before she forced the ocean to take both of them under. </p><p>As they made their way to the tree line, they didn’t talk about it.</p><p>-</p><p>There were a few homesteads that weren’t that far from the forest, and Zuko and Katara darted quickly over fences, stealing whatever crops they could carry as they ran for cover. Katara felt guilty about stealing--especially since these homes were tiny, and she doubted they had very much. But at the same time, she knew they had to eat, especially if they were going to be able to keep looking for Aang. </p><p>At some point, Zuko had snatched a small backpack, and they’d stuffed it full of the fruits and vegetables they’d stolen from the farms. </p><p>“We’ll repay them, someday,” Zuko said at one point, and Katara nodded. She knew there was no way for them to actually do that, but she appreciated the sentiment all the same. </p><p>Daylight had been limited, with storm clouds rolling in, and rain beating down on them through the trees. She filled the waterskin carefully with as much rainwater as it could hold.</p><p>It wasn’t long before Zuko said, “We should find shelter.”</p><p>-</p><p>That night, she dreamed of the guards at the Boiling Rock Prison, frozen in the moments of their death, skin sliding off their bones and eyes leaking out of their skulls. </p><p>The world inside her dreams expanded until she saw Aang and Sokka and Toph, blood seeping out of their eyes, bones broken and crushed, their screams echoing in her ears. </p><p>When she woke up, she realized that Zuko had gathered her into his arms and clamped a hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry,” he muttered under his breath. “I was worried that someone might hear you. We’re not that far from the nearest town.” </p><p>She shook in Zuko’s grasp and she couldn’t help but feel slightly ridiculous that she’d been so affected by a dream. It wasn't as though she was completely oblivious to war, not when she’d traveled across the world with Aang. Not when she’d faced down Azula or saw her life flash before her eyes in the caves underneath Ba Sing Se. </p><p>For a while, the two of them sat there together, Katara tucked underneath his chin, just breathing. Just quiet. </p><p>Until Zuko murmured, so quietly that for a moment, Katara was almost certain that she’d imagined him speaking. “It’s okay to be afraid.”</p><p>“I’m not afraid,” she said reflexively, though maybe, on some level, both were true. She hadn’t hesitated to do what she needed to do to escape the Boiling Rock Prison. She hadn’t spared a thought for the guards, who as far as she could tell, represented some of the worst and most sadistic people that the Fire Nation had to offer. </p><p>“No, you’re not afraid,” Zuko agreed. It was hard for her to tell if he actually agreed with her, or if he was telling her what he thought she wanted to hear.</p><p>But in a way, she supposed, it didn’t actually matter, because he didn’t let go of her. He simply held her close, enveloping her in a thick and comforting warmth. She had never really thought about whether firebenders were warm all the time, but it made sense. Though, she supposed, it was difficult to think about whether they could use that warmth to comfort you in a rainstorm when they were spending time trying to burn you alive. </p><p>For a while, they laid there together, listening to the rain come down outside the cave. Zuko didn’t make a move to let go of her--if anything, he readjusted his hold on her so that she could be more comfortable lying there with him. </p><p>“I have dreams, sometimes,” Zuko murmured. “That I’m back home. Been having them for months.”</p><p>Katara furrowed her brow. Zuko seemed to choose his words so carefully--if he said anything at all--that she couldn’t help but wonder what that meant. </p><p>“Are they...good dreams?” she asked cautiously. Even as she asked, however, she wasn’t sure if that was the right thing to say. If Zuko liked dreaming about the Fire Nation, it didn’t seem like much of a stretch to imagine that he might have been secretly working for Azula and leading her into a trap. </p><p>But that fear almost evaporated completely when he shook his head and murmured, “No.” </p><p>He didn’t say anything else, and Katara supposed that he didn’t have to. She could put the pieces together from what she’d seen in the war--and what the war and the Fire Nation had taken from her and her family personally. </p><p>“I’m sorry.”</p><p>Zuko shook his head. “It’s fine. You don’t have to be sorry.” </p><p>Maybe Zuko was right, but it didn’t stop her from thinking of a young Zuko, tiny and afraid--so afraid, in fact, that his fear still permeated his subconscious all these years later. </p><p>“We can move again when it stops raining,” Katara said, and Zuko murmured his assent. </p><p>“Get some sleep, I’ll keep watch.”</p><p>It was a simple statement, but the kindness buoyed her, and made her feel calmer than she had before everything had gone to shit in Ba Sing Se. </p><p>“Okay,” she nodded, leaning against Zuko. A little shiver went through her when Zuko brushed her hair off of her face--but it wasn’t long before she started to drift off to sleep.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Katara woke up, the first thing she noticed was the smell of smoke hanging in the air. </p><p>“Fuck,” Zuko grumbled. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” </p><p>She rubbed the sleep away from her eyes and noticed that Zuko had taken a fighting stance, and was punching out little plumes of smoke--but nothing more. </p><p>“You felt warm last night,” Katara muttered helplessly, which made Zuko raise an eyebrow at her. </p><p>“I know,” Zuko grumbled. “It felt almost normal again.” </p><p>Katara furrowed her brow. “Almost?”</p><p>Zuko stepped out of his stance and leaned against the wall of the cave. He let out a long sigh, and for the first time, Katara felt like she saw all of him--both figuratively and literally. She could see the exhaustion behind his eyes and all the way down to his bones. </p><p>“I can’t produce any fire,” Zuko sighed again, scrubbing a hand over his face. </p><p>Katara grew quiet for a moment - it was hard not to think of every moment that Zuko had been chasing them, capable of sending streams of fire at a target effortlessly. How lucky it would have been for him to lose his bending then, and not now.</p><p>He eyed her curiously. “What are you thinking about?”</p><p>“Nothing,” she said flatly.</p><p>“Bullshit.”</p><p>She narrowed her eyes. “It’s not a big deal.” It wasn’t fair of her to think so uncharitably about him, especially when he hadn’t turned her over to Fire Nation soldiers the moment that they’d arrived on dry land - but now she felt defensive. On her guard. Ready to strike.</p><p>“Yeah,” Zuko sighed, gaze piercing and knowing. “It would have been lucky for you if I did then too.”</p><p>And well, Katara didn’t know what to do with that. She pursed her lips and said, “I’m not going to apologize for thinking it.”</p><p>“You don’t have to,” Zuko shrugged. </p><p>An uneasy silence settled between them. “We’re going to have to get you some kind of disguise,” Katara said suddenly. “Just in case we run into any other soldiers out on patrol.” It hadn’t felt bad to kill those men, but it hadn’t felt good either, and if they could avoid unnecessary confrontations, then she was all for it. </p><p>“I agree,” Zuko nodded. “The faces of the royal family are everywhere here. Even if I was banished three years ago, my country has a long memory. That, and father at one point mandated that every household have a portrait of our family.” </p><p>Okay, so that would maybe complicate things slightly, but while she might not have been a strategic genius like Sokka was, she wasn’t stupid. She studied Zuko’s face for a moment, lingering possibly for a moment too long, before she said, “We’re going to find a way to get rid of your scar.” </p><p>Zuko raised an eyebrow at her. “How are you going to do that?”</p><p>“Learned a couple of tricks staying in the upper ring of Ba Sing Se,” Katara shrugged, a slow smile spreading across her face. “Just leave it to me.” </p><p>-</p><p>First, they’d snagged some clothes off of a washline, darting back into the forest before they could be spotted. Katara pulled her hair out of its tight braids, fluffing it out with her fingers. The red shirt and skirt that she’d stolen for herself were considerably lighter than her own clothes, but she couldn’t say that she minded, especially since it was much warmer in the Fire Nation than it was back home. </p><p>Zuko, well, he still looked like Zuko, but at the very least, he wasn’t wearing the same clothes that he’d been wearing back at the Boiling Rock Prison. It wasn’t much, but it was definitely a start. </p><p>“I’ll go into town, you stay here,” Katara said once he’d changed too. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’ll make sure that I’m not being followed.” </p><p>She didn’t look as out of place as she did with an obviously Water Tribe hairstyle or Water Tribe jewelry, but her heart was still beating nervously in her chest. She hadn’t left the South Pole before a few months ago, and she certainly had never been to the Fire Nation--and the only people that she’d really met from there were the soldiers that had come to routinely pillage her home. Even Zuko hadn’t been there for years. Would she do something that marked her as someone out of place? Someone that obviously shouldn’t have been there?</p><p>“Okay,” Zuko murmured, biting his lip. “I’ll be here, then. Make sure you don’t get followed.” </p><p>Katara gave him a curt nod, and headed off into town, catching a glimpse of Zuko attempting to bend again out of the corner of her eye. </p><p>-</p><p>When she returned from the market, she had a tin of face powder in her hands. She’d had to barter a couple of their vegetables for it (they’d have to figure out how to get money, and the prospect of stealing it made her stomach swoop uncomfortably). As she approached the cave, she could smell acrid smoke in the air. Zuko, for his part, was right where she’d left him, looking more stone-faced than he had earlier. </p><p>“I think my bending’s gone for good,” he said, avoiding her gaze.</p><p>“I’m pretty sure that’s impossible,” she raised an eyebrow as she unscrewed the tin. “Even when I wasn’t good at bending, there was no point where I seemed like I’d lost it entirely.” Thinking back to making the water in the South Pole push and pull according to her whims back before she and Sokka had found Aang made nostalgia twist inside of her. </p><p>“It was never just smoke,” Zuko gave her a pointed look. “Not even when I was learning. It was always fire. Never smoke.”</p><p>Katara’s mouth twisted as she tried to find the right words, but Zuko beat her to it. “I lived without my bending in Ba Sing Se, I can find a way to live without it again, if I have to.”</p><p>“You don’t know for sure that that’s what happened,” Katara said gently, but Zuko shook his head.</p><p>“I don’t know that that’s not what happened, either,” Zuko shot back, and made a face. He didn’t show very many emotions on his features, well, other than anger, but this one made her feel sad. She might have managed to get both of them out of the Boiling Rock Prison, but Zuko seemed to have lost something anyway. </p><p>“What did you get at the market?”</p><p>When Katara held up the tin, Zuko raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think that’s going to work?”</p><p>Katara tutted to herself. “Of course it’s going to work. I’ll have you know that I was a proper lady back in the upper ring, well-acquainted with the finer things in life.” </p><p>Zuko smiled a little, and Katara unscrewed the tin. “As it just so happens, waterbending isn’t the only thing that I’m good at.” </p><p>She used the little sponge in the tin to spread the powder against the scar tissue on Zuko’s cheek. Her fingers felt like they were tingling from the close contact, but she kept her touch feather light. “I wish I still had the spirit water. I’d try healing it.” It would have been practical, she thought, to make the scar disappear, but as it was, the guards at the prison had taken the water and she didn’t have any more. </p><p>But as much as she tried to convince herself that she only wanted to heal it out of practicality and their need to survive, she found that her gaze was lingering on his dark eyes. His lips.</p><p>Before he closed the distance between them, pressing his lips against hers.</p><p>She turned bright red, and he did too, and for a moment, she felt that same warmth that she had the night before. </p><p>Until it was gone.</p><p>“We should make a plan to leave,” Zuko said suddenly, drawing away from her. </p><p>Words died on her tongue. She nodded absently.</p><p>That night, she dreamed of fire. </p><p>-</p><p>The next day, she went to the market again, desperate to barter for more of the face powder, when she saw it.</p><p>A portrait of a criminal known as ‘The Blind Bandit’--a criminal who looked suspiciously like Toph. </p><p>Her breath caught, and for a moment, she couldn’t do anything except stand there, staring at the paper. She ripped it off the post to examine it earlier, not giving a thought to whether that gesture would attract suspicion. It felt so stupidly lucky that she didn’t know what to do with it - according to this poster, she’d last been seen in the capitol.</p><p>Katara’s heart sank. Aang was in the capitol, he had to be. Or at the very least, he was there recently, with Toph and Sokka. </p><p>She couldn’t believe their luck that a lead like this had fallen into their laps, but at the same time, she wasn’t ignorant to the fact that she would still have to go to the capitol--and if Zuko came with her, that meant sneaking into the capitol with the Fire Prince in disguise. </p><p>Sure, no problem.</p><p>-</p><p>When she returned to the cave, the poster was balled up in her hands. It was a stupid idea, she thought. Even if she went without Zuko, it was still a major risk. </p><p>“What’s that?”</p><p>She’d been tempted to hide the poster or outright destroy it, but she couldn’t bear to do it. It was the first time since Ba Sing Se since she’d seen proof that there was hope. Actual, tangible proof. </p><p>“Poster,” she held it out so that Zuko could see the drawing of Toph and the reward money. “I think I know how we’re going to find Aang, but it’s risky. We’re going to have to go to the capitol.”</p><p>Zuko’s expression was so unreadable in that moment that it set her teeth on edge and made her want to scream. </p><p>“So?” she asked, her tone a bit more biting and challenging than she’d intended. </p><p>“I’m coming with you,” Zuko said, shrugging. “I already made up my mind on that.”</p><p>“You do realize this is the capitol, right? We can get by with disguises out here, but there, there’s so many more people, so many more people who could recognize you or both of us, and...it’s a lot to consider. It’s more complicated than trekking through the woods together. And you’re just going to come with me? Just like that?”</p><p>“Just like that,” Zuko nodded. “I’m in this now, Katara. I’m in this just like you are.” </p><p>Katara took a deep breath. “Are you really sure?”</p><p>“Yeah. I’m really sure. I promise.”</p><p>Zuko seemed as serious as he possibly could, so Katara nodded. “Okay then, okay. We’ll go tonight, it should be easier to travel unnoticed, at least.” Katara didn't want to have to think about what the amount of things they'd have to steal from the town to be able to make the journey in a short amount of time--it was almost better not to think about it, if she was being perfectly honest. They had to do what they needed to do in order to survive. </p><p>-</p><p>That night, under the cover of darkness, they stole two ostrich horses and set off in the direction of the capitol.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They rode through the night. Katara knew they’d eventually need to stop--need rest--but she couldn’t bring herself to stop. The poster was a clue that Aang was close, and if they had even a chance of catching up with him, she was going to take it. She knew that the odds were stacked against them, but that didn’t matter either. She had hope, and now that she had hope, she was going to see as far as it would take her. </p><p>As the sun began to rise, she started to see the high walls of the Fire Nation’s capital rising just over the horizon. She felt a mix of anticipation, anxiety, and pure nausea. Aang was close--she knew he was. But at the same time, this wasn’t going to be easy, especially since Zuko still hadn’t been able to bend since before they’d been imprisoned at the Boiling Rock. </p><p>The odds that they might find a fight were pretty high.</p><p>If Zuko was anxious, he didn’t show it--no real surprise there. He simply rode next to her, keeping pace as they approached. “We’re going to want to ditch the ostrich horses and make it the rest of the way on foot--it’s not far now, we could probably get through the gates with some of the merchants coming from neighboring towns.”</p><p>Katara nodded, and followed Zuko’s lead into a nearby cluster of trees, dismounting the ostrich horse, and cutting it loose. “Are you sure about this?”</p><p>Zuko gave her an unamused look. “I know my city, Katara. Every morning, merchants come through the gates--it’s always fairly crowded and busy. If you’re careful, you could sneak through. I did it a couple of times.” </p><p>Katara raised an eyebrow at him. “Were you easily recognizable as the prince at the time?” Because if he was, then this wasn’t going to be a great plan. Now that Zuko was a fugitive, it wasn’t as though the officials at the gate would pretend that they hadn’t seen him if he wanted to be able to sneak out of the city. </p><p>Zuko shook his head, and for a moment, he looked somewhere between wistful and embarrassed. “I used to sneak out in a disguise, it’s not really important where I was going.” </p><p>Even though Zuko wasn’t being specific about where he used to sneak off to, it wasn’t hard for Katara to fill in the blanks, and feel a tiny bit jealous, longing for a relationship that she couldn’t have, for more than once reason. “Okay,” she nodded. “I believe you.” </p><p>They did their best to walk in step with merchants who were pushing carts that were piled high with ash bananas, figs, and lychee nuts or clams, crab, and komodo chicken, through the city gates. As Zuko had predicted the guards at the gate looked uninterested as they stamped people’s papers and waved them through the city--in fact, they were only bothering to ask for papers if it looked like a merchant was bringing a lot of produce into the city. For the most part, they waved everyone through, slouching against the gates and making small talk with each other.<br/>
They were making good progress, she thought. They’d mixed in with the merchants reasonably well, and although the smell of fresh fruit, vegetable, and meat was almost completely overwhelming after a lot of the slop they’d been fed at the Boiling Rock, she was doing a good job keeping a level-head and scanning for any threats that they might face.</p><p>They’d made it through the gates without being asked for papers by any of the soldiers at the gates. Hell, they hadn’t even made eye contact with them. Katara had breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, for a moment, that coming to the capital and finding Aang, Sokka, and Toph would be a lot easier than she thought it would be.</p><p>Until she spotted Toph in the square, screaming at the top of her lungs at a couple of soldiers who had her surrounded, “I am not the Blind Bandit, you can’t arrest me!” </p><p>The sound of Toph’s voice was too unexpected and familiar for her not to look up, not to make eye contact. Once she did, she saw that Sokka and Aang were there too, although Aang had grown his hair out, covering his Air Nomad tattoos, and Sokka had a very poor attempt at a goatee. </p><p>On the one hand, it was a relief--it wasn’t like they’d had to spend a lot of time looking for them. On the other hand, there was only a split second before streams of fire had started to rain down on the square. Even worse - when Katara and Zuko rolled out of the way of the soldiers’ flames, one of them made eye contact with Zuko, whose scar was peeking out from behind the face powder that Katara had applied to his skin.</p><p>So much for being able to come to the capital completely unnoticed. </p><p>“Arrest them!” </p><p>She looked to Aang and Sokka and motioned for them to get out of there--but once they both shook their heads, she knew that they were in for a long and drawn out fight. </p><p>Toph kicked up rocks in the square, aiming them at a couple of soldiers who had run toward her. Katara heard a sickening crack when the large rocks made contact with their ribs. </p><p>Zuko dodged deftly between the flames, coming in close to one of the soldiers and snapping their neck. He reached down and pulled a sword off of the body, before he took a stance next to her. </p><p>“This wasn’t exactly what I imagined,” he admitted, and Katara almost laughed, because fuck if Zuko didn’t sound light-hearted and amused by the situation.</p><p>Katara moved her arms straight out and sent water straight through a soldier’s helmet, sending blood everywhere as the soldier slouched over. </p><p>More were coming. She cast a glance over to Aang, who she knew had to be trying as hard as he could not to use his airbending--that couldn’t have been easy. Sokka was sticking close to his side, parrying attacks from soldiers that were trying to close in on him. </p><p>“Get the prince, don’t waste time!” she heard one of the soldiers shout, and it almost made her breathe a sigh of relief--because it meant that Aang hadn’t been recognized, and there was still hope for the end of the war--but whatever relief she felt was fleeting as the soldiers closed in on Zuko. </p><p>She waved her hands again, sending thin icy needles, but her aim was off, and they hit the soldiers’ armor and bounded off uselessly. </p><p>Just then, she felt a large hand close around her neck, squeezing the life out of her throat. She thrashed around wildly as another hand grabbed one of her wrists. She still had control, she could still bend, but the harder the air was squeezed out of her throat, the hazier she felt, until the water she was trying to bend splashed back onto the ground. </p><p>“Got you,” she heard a man’s voice in her ear, as she wriggled in his grasp. “Didn’t expect to find the Water Tribe peasant in the capital, but I can’t say I’m disappointed. Azula will pay me a hefty sum for you.” </p><p>Her eyes widened and her heart was hammering against her chest. </p><p>“Go!” she wheezed at Sokka. She couldn’t stand the idea of going back to a Fire Nation prison, especially after being separated from them at Ba Sing Se. She wouldn’t go back.</p><p>But she also knew that the reality of the situation was that she would let herself get captured a million times over if it meant that Aang and Sokka and Toph would be safe. </p><p>Just then, she could feel an intense burst of fire at her back. The soldier who had his hands around her throat and her waist loosened his grip, until he went slack completely, skin mottling and melting off of his bones, until he was little more than ash and bits of blood and muscle on the ground. </p><p>When Katara turned and looked up, she saw Zuko blasting away guards with his flames. </p><p>He’d saved her.</p><p>She tore her gaze away from him as she noticed that Toph had managed to incapacitate the soldiers who had come for her, and was making quick work of the soldiers surrounding Aang and Sokka. </p><p>“It’s nice to see you guys!” Sokka called over. “I feel like you have a lot to catch us up on.” </p><p>And even in the middle of battle, with Sokka smiling easily at her, she couldn’t help but feel like it was going to be okay. </p><p>Of course, she didn’t have time to ruminate on this for long. </p><p>The soldiers had stopped coming in waves, although now there were alarms blaring. “They’re going to send more soldiers soon,” Zuko said, looking up in what Katara now realized was the direction of the palace. “We have to move.”</p><p>“Is Zuko one of us now?” Toph asked. </p><p>“Pretty much,” Katara smiled.</p><p>“Welcome to the team,” Aang said cheerily, and Sokka shrugged and nodded in response. </p><p>“Any tips on how to get out of here fast?” Sokka asked. </p><p>“Tunnels are out, we’d have to go further into the city. Best bet is to run for it--straight through the southern gate before they get the chance to close it,” Zuko said, and Toph immediately broke into a run toward the market, which had cleared out during the fighting.</p><p>“You guys waiting for an invite from the Fire Lord or something? Let’s go!” </p><p>All five of them broke into a run toward the gate that Zuko and Katara had used to enter the city. For a moment, Katara thought that they were going to escape without encountering any further resistance, before the two soldiers that had been checking merchants’ papers only moments earlier appeared out of nowhere and took a fighting stance. </p><p>“Stop right there!” one of them said. Toph kicked up a rock and Katara brandished an icy spear. Zuko and Sokka drew their swords. </p><p>“Okay, go right ahead,” the other soldier said, elbowing the other and pulling them aside.</p><p>Once they were through the gates, they snapped closed behind them.</p><p>Sokka wrapped her in a tight hug, and was closely followed by Aang and Toph. </p><p>And for the first time in a while, Katara breathed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So do I have to be the one to ask it--what the hell happened?” Sokka asked, and Katara laughed, long and hard, just because it was such a relief to see all of them again.</p><p>“I could ask you the same thing,” she said, elbowing him playfully. </p><p>Occasionally, as they walked, Sokka or Toph cast curious glances in Zuko’s direction. Aang, for his part, fell into step with Zuko like the two of them had always been friends. </p><p>“Well, there isn’t that much to tell, really,” Sokka shrugged. “The Earth King escaped Ba Sing Se with us, but decided that he wanted to travel the world, so we dropped him off. We hid out for a few days before we were crossing between islands and saw a Water Tribe fleet. They helped us get in contact with dad, and--Katara, it’s going to happen soon. We’re going to link up with them tomorrow, and then we should be getting ready to start the invasion.”</p><p>Katara’s eyes widened as she took in the amount of time that had passed since she and Zuko had been captured in Ba Sing Se. “They took us to a prison...I had no idea how long we were there,” she shook her head in wonder. “I can’t believe that it was that long. I wish--”</p><p>She only started before Sokka clapped a hand on her shoulder and drew her in close. “Don’t worry about it, you’re here now, and that’s what matters.” </p><p>“Yeah,” Katara smiled gently. “I think you’re right.” </p><p>Silence fell between the two of them before Sokka grinned broadly. “So what’s the deal with you and Zuko?”</p><p>“Well, I saved his life. He saved mine. Not sure there’s that much more to it.” The memory of the kiss in the cave popped up in her head, and she was almost certain that Sokka could tell what she was thinking about because his eyebrows were raised so high that they were practically in his hairline. </p><p>“Realllly,” he said slowly, drawing out the word so much that it made Katara want to punch him in the stomach. “You’re absolutely certain that there’s nothing going on between the two of you.”</p><p>Just then, Katara realized that Zuko had looked over in her direction for a few seconds, before looking away. She pursed her lips. “Yeah, I mean, they were going to kill him in there. They were torturing him. I heard it, every day that it happened. I wouldn’t leave anyone in there. Not even him, even after everything that he did.” </p><p>Sokka looked pensive for a moment before he nodded. “Me neither.” As light-hearted as Sokka could be, he always seemed to understand difficult subjects without them needing to be spelled out for him. “I know who he is--but Aang did say that he was fighting Azula in the caves, and if you trust him, then I trust him too.” </p><p>Katara nodded. “Yeah, I definitely trust him.” </p><p>It was just everything else that was more complicated. </p><p>-</p><p>Katara wasn’t sure how long they’d been walking--only that her muscles were aching desperately. Now that she was back with Aang, Sokka, and Toph, it was like every part of her body had relaxed, and the pain that she’d been frantically pushing away since Ba Sing Se had crept up out of nowhere.</p><p>She cast a glance in Zuko’s direction, looking for some recognition of what had happened back in the square. When she didn’t find it, she looked back at Sokka, who was marching along dramatically, as though he was playing at leading a unit like he had back in the South Pole.</p><p>“So...where are we going?” </p><p>“Well, that’s the other part of what happened,” Sokka said, brandishing his sword as though he had waited until this exact moment to make his big reveal. “I trained with a swordmaster while you were away, and I got this amazing new sword, although Boomerang will always be first in my heart.” </p><p>He clapped a hand against his chest and sighed melodramatically. Katara couldn’t help but laugh, while Zuko raised an eyebrow. </p><p>“Anyway, Piandao owns a house not too far from here, and he said that we could use it if we needed to--and we’ve been gathering allies from all across the world--”</p><p>“Okay, but hold on,” Katara raised a hand, furrowing her brow. “I saw posters of Toph like fifty miles from here. They were calling her The Blind Bandit and offering a massive reward for her arrest. What the hell were you doing in the capital if you had access to a house out here?” </p><p>Toph looked a little sheepish. “I might have gotten a little carried away.”</p><p>Katara made a face. “I’m away for like ten minutes and you guys almost get captured by the Fire Nation too.” </p><p>“Almost,” Aang beamed, unhelpfully. </p><p>Katara crossed her arms as Sokka led them up to the house. “Carried away sounds about right.” Spending any time in the Fire Nation’s capital, especially when they had a safehouse nearby was downright reckless. “Sounds like I got back just in time.” </p><p>Aang smiled at her and reached out to squeeze her shoulder. “Yeah, definitely.” </p><p>-</p><p>During dinner that night, as Sokka and Toph were tearing through their komodo chicken at an alarming rate (which was both slightly disturbing to watch and made her feel a little nostalgic and fond at the exact same time), Katara’s gaze kept drifting over to Zuko. Aang seemed to notice that she was deep in thought, and kept casting worried looks in her direction.</p><p>It was difficult to remind herself to stay in the present when her mind kept coming back to the fact that Zuko seemed to have lost his bending back in the cave, and now, here he was, producing the kind of fire that could effortlessly make a person melt into nothing more than blood, bile, and bits and pieces of bone and muscle. </p><p>She didn’t want to assume that he’d lied, but it was hard for her to square the little plumes of smoke with the intense blasts she’d seen in the square.</p><p>And beyond that, she knew that she’d saved him once. Now he’d saved her. Was he about to decide that this wasn’t a war worth fighting now that things were even between the two of them? </p><p>Sokka must have noticed the change in her mood too, because once dinner was over, he stood up and slapped the table with his hands. “Well, big day invading the Fire Nation tomorrow,” Sokka yawned, elbowing Toph who had just started to say, “But we’re already in the Fire Nation and we’re not even invading tomorrow.” </p><p>Aang hesitated for a moment, looking over to Katara. “I’ll go to bed soon,” she said with a smile, and he nodded and started making his way up the steps to the second floor. </p><p>“Okay, see you both tomorrow, try to get some sleep.” </p><p>As soon as Aang had disappeared upstairs, Katara stared Zuko down. One way or another, she was going to get some answers right here and now. </p><p>“You saved me. Why?”</p><p>Zuko gave her an incredulous look. “You saved me first, Katara.”</p><p>Katara’s mouth twisted and she narrowed her eyes at him. “I know. So, what, is this some kind of way to get even with me for what happened at the Boiling Rock?” </p><p>The more she thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense--Zuko had played his cards close to his chest, because he was just biding his time. He would wait until he had the opportunity to save her life, then he would abandon her, he’d abandon the war, and he’d go. </p><p>Thinking about him leaving made her feel a hollow ache in her chest. </p><p>Zuko furrowed his brow. “Do you really think that? That it was about getting even?”</p><p>Katara bit her lip. “I’m not sure that I really knew what to think. Everything happened so fast, I…” she trailed off. “You have to understand that this wasn’t easy for me.”</p><p>For a moment, something that looked a lot like annoyance flickered across Zuko’s face. “It seems like you trust me and you don’t trust me at the same time,” he said, “Not that I blame you, really, but you have to understand Katara, that I’ve had plenty of chances to turn you over to Fire Nation soldiers and get back my old life. If I wanted that, if I was going to do that, I would have done that by now.” </p><p>And well, Katara supposed that he had a point, because he could have turned her over to soldiers in the capital. He could have turned her over to the soldiers that found them on the shore after they’d escaped the Boiling Rock. Hell, he could have fought with Azula and tried to trap her and Aang all the way back in Ba Sing Se. </p><p>Maybe he had a point. She was about to say that she believed him, that she was sorry for poking at this issue and making it into something that it didn’t have to be, when something else occurred to her. </p><p>“What about your bending?” </p><p>Zuko extended a hand and a plume of fire appeared in it, before he quickly extinguished it. “It feels different than it did before. But if you’re thinking that I lied about not being able to bend before, you’re wrong. That’s not something I’d ever lie about. That’s something that Azula would do.” </p><p>And maybe he had a point there too, because if there was one thing that Katara had known to be true before she and Zuko had been captured in Ba Sing Se, it was that Zuko would never pass up a chance to use his firebending to brutal efficiency. </p><p>“Okay,” she relented, and she could feel the muscles in her shoulder relaxing. She hadn’t realized how much stress she’d been carrying in her body until she decided to accept that Zuko wasn’t lying to her. While she’d suspected he was telling the truth on the surface, her entire body had been so ready for a fight that now she knew was never going to come--even if she’d felt a massive sense of relief after leaving the capital, she’d still been ready for a fight. </p><p>Zuko closed the distance between them, cautiously, as though he might scare her away if he got too close to her too quickly. Then, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, and she quickly relaxed into his hold. </p><p>“If I’m being totally honest,” Zuko said after a moment, his hand coming up to brush a strand of hair off of her face. “You didn’t have to take a chance on me, and you did. I’m grateful for that.” </p><p>Katara nodded, taking a deep and shuddering breath. “Like I said, I would have never left you there. No matter how I felt about you.” Nobody deserved to rot there, she knew that much--not even the Zuko who had chased her and Aang and Sokka halfway across the world (not even Azula, she found herself thinking). She wasn’t sure if she still would have saved him if he’d fought for Azula, but she pushed off the thought. That wasn’t the point, anyway. Zuko was here with them. </p><p>“How do you feel about me?” Zuko asked, eying her curiously. His voice was so quiet, so uncertain, that for a moment, Katara couldn’t help but feel as though she was imagining this conversation. Then again, Zuko was so stoic and quiet, and had been since they’d been transported to the Boiling Rock that she almost felt as though she’d imagined half of their conversations. </p><p>In another time, maybe it would have been easy to have this conversation. As it was, they were in a safehouse, only about twelve hours from the beginnings of launching a full-scale invasion of the Fire Nation. </p><p>Katara could hear footsteps upstairs--probably Aang, she thought, both Sokka and Toph tended to sleep like the dead. She took a deep, steadying breath, and looked to what she felt in her heart. </p><p>Zuko was different from Jet, she thought, but the feeling was similar. She wanted to be close to him. She wanted to protect him. The thought of leaving him behind at the Boiling Rock didn’t just seem wrong now, it felt positively gutting to think about.</p><p>A blush crept across her face. “I mean, I’d say I like you,” she murmured. “I think you’re on our side--I <i>know</i> you’re on our side. But I don’t know how to...how to deal with that now. I don’t know how to deal with what happened in the cave when it was just the two of us.” It wasn’t like she’d gotten the luxury of meeting him outside of a prison or outside of a war. Thinking about a relationship felt overwhelming, and it felt even more overwhelming now that they were on the cusp of needing to fight this war to the finish.</p><p>Zuko nodded curtly. Katara half-expected him to let go, but he didn’t. She felt relieved. He hesitated for a moment, before he leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss against her hair. </p><p>He ran his thumb against the little scar on her cheek from where Azula had burned her all the way back in Ba Sing Se--a scar that she’d nearly forgotten that she even had. His touch was so gentle that Katara almost wondered if he could make the scar disappear just by touching it. </p><p>“I’m not going anywhere,” he said finally. “I’m seeing this war through to the end. I am fighting with you and the Avatar to end it. And well, after that, I won’t go anywhere either.” Even though the words ‘unless you want me to’ went unsaid, Katara could still feel them hanging in the air. </p><p>“Okay,” Katara murmured, nodding. And this time, it felt real and true--though there was a part of her that realized that Zuko had been telling the truth all along. Maybe she’d just needed to hear it more than once--or really, more than a few times--for it to sink in. “Okay.” </p><p>And, for the first time since they’d been captured in Ba Sing Se, Katara saw Zuko smile a broad and genuine smile. </p><p> </p><p>-</p><p>While the mood the next morning over breakfast was tense (though honestly it was hard to tell if it was because the invasion was drawing closer--Sokka kept giving her a knowing look that made her want to punch him in the gut), Katara couldn’t help but feel happier and lighter than she had in a long time. That feeling was only magnified when they left the safehouse, waiting at the top of a hill for the signal that they could make their way toward the ships in the distance that were docked at the nearest fishing village. </p><p>The ships--with stolen Fire Nation sails and standards, dotted the small harbor. So far, there were no signs that they’d been detected as imposters. They were really going to do this. She could feel the end of the war on the horizon--after a century, it was finally going to be over.</p><p>She reached out for Zuko’s hand, a small smile gracing her features when he held it. </p><p>“Are you ready?”</p><p>“I’m ready.”</p><p>They could end this war.</p><p>Together.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed &lt;333333</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Catch me on Tumblr at <a href="https://omgaflockofbirdsthings.tumblr.com/">omgaflockofbirdsthings</a>. I'm also officially on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/plutosrose1/">@plutosrose1</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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